Curriculum

Developing an Effective Resume
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A resume is a concise, organized summary of your skills, accomplishments, experiences, and education, which is designed to capture the interest of a potential employer. A resume should be tailored specifically for the kind of job/organization/career you are seeking. This means you may have to write more than one resume if applying for different types ofjobs. The purpose of a resume is to secure an interview. In writing a resume, “one size does not fit all.” Don’t try to make your resume look like everyone else’s. For this reason, don’t use a resume template. There are many different ways of constructing an effective resume, depending on the type of skills, work experiences, accomplishments, activities, and so forth that you want to emphasize asbeing related to your career/job preferences.

BEFORE YOU CAN WRITE AN EFFECTIVE RESUME, you must first be able to identify your skills, abilities, and interests and be able to relate them to the job/industry/career field in which you are seeking employment. If you are unsure about the types of jobs, industries, organizations, or careers you are targeting, make an appointment with the CareerCenter to help you in developing some focus. Employers cannot (and will not) decide what career is best for you; you must be able to communicate what skills and abilities you have that fit the specific job or jobs they are trying to fill.
1. Be sure your resume communicates your abilities, as well as your personal qualities that pertain to the job. These abilities may have come from activities,education, volunteer work, or from work experience. 2. Focus on the employer’s needs, not on your own needs. 6. Be consistent. The order of information, spacing, format, or highlighting should be consistent throughout your resume. 7. Use action verbs in describing your skills and experience. Instead of…Responsible for assisting with preparation of sales tax reports each month Write………Assisted inpreparation of monthly sales tax reports

RESUME TIPS

3. Be concise. Keep it simple and to the point. An employer must be able to read Instead of…Was in charge of organizing over your resume quickly (30 – 60 and taking care of spring rush activities Write………Organized and directed seconds)! spring rush activities for over 50 new 4. Eliminate the first person sorority pledges pronoun “I” from yourresume. 8. Write a draft of your resume, then For example, “ I am seeking a refine and polish it. Writing an effective position in human services…” resume takes some time and effort. should read “Seeking position in human services...” 9. Check your grammar and spelling! Have at least one other person 5. Quantify your experience proofread your resume before submitting wherever possible. For example,it to an employer. “Supervised others” can be made more clear by stating “Supervised 10. Keep the resume to one page. A resume should only be two pages if three cash register attendants”. you have a great deal of related experience, activities, or training.
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The Career Center

Resume
RESUME FORMATS
CHRONOLOGICAL

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Use if your education and/or experience closely relates toyour career goals Lists education and work experience in reverse chronological order (most recent information in each section first) Most commonly used resume format

FUNCTIONAL
Puts greater emphasis on SKILLS and less on work history or educational background Effective when work experience does not show a direct relationship to the career goal or when there are significant gaps in experienceTypically shows a short skills summary, while retaining the reverse chronological order on education and experience sections Each country has its own rules and standards for writing resumes Please visit the Career Center Resource Library for print resources when writing your international resume Required for teaching/research positions in higher education More detailed account of one’s background,...